For the sixth year in a row, the University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville cardiologists and Shands Jacksonville health professionals will share “the latest” in diagnosing, treating and managing patients with heart failure as part of National Heart Failure Awareness Week.
The week, which the Heart Failure Society of America holds annually to promote awareness, runs Feb. 11-17. The society aims to make more Americans aware of the symptoms and risks of heart failure.
Heart failure is a progressive condition in which the heart muscle weakens and gradually loses its ability to pump enough blood to supply the body’s needs, and more and more Americans are developing it.
“Heart failure is the only major cardiovascular disease on the rise,” said Alan Miller, M.D., a UF professor of cardiology and chair of a symposium being held in Jacksonville on heart failure. “It affects nearly 5 million Americans and, even though more and more patients survive heart attacks, they’re left with weakened hearts.”
The Jacksonville symposium, set for Tuesday, Feb. 12, will include two case presentations – one discussing decompensated heart failure and the other discussing heart failure patients who require device therapy like pacemakers or ICDs.
Panelists include Miller and other UF division of cardiology faculty members Douglas Chapman, M.D., a UF assistant professor and medical director of the heart failure program at the Shands Jacksonville Cardiovascular Center; Bharat Gummadi, M.D., a heart failure fellow; and physician assistant Erin James, P.A.-C. Also participating are pharmacist Amber Chaki, Pharm.D., and Susan Maurer, R.D., both of Shands Jacksonville.
The event, designed for Jacksonville-area primary care and family practice physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses and allied health professionals to earn continuing medical education credits, is slated for 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Sterlings of Avondale, 3551 St. Johns Ave. Dinner will be provided, and reservations are required.
For more information about the symposium and CME registration, call (904) 244-2380, e-mail barbara.jones@jax.ufl.edu or register online at http://hscj.ufl.edu/cme.